Quick Pitch: JD Supra is an online resource for attorneys that takes on old-school players like Martindale by spreading expert-legal content across the social Web.
Genius Idea: JD Supra may not be a startup in a sexy field, but it certainly has some utility for the average person, lawyers, and anyone looking to hire one. The legal startup promises to help spread your good reputation and documents across the web. But does it succeed?
The service is based on the premise that legal documents inside of a file cabinet are doing nobody good. Having them out and shared might not only educate people on a subject, but can make law more accessible for others. Lawyers, law firms, and others share legal documents, decisions, articles, forms, and more. The entire database is easily searchable.
So what's in it for the lawyer? The answer: an authoritative digital presence. Most people like to search for information on doctors or lawyers before hiring them. The company promises to appear not only high up in search, but on Twitter, Facebook, and other major social media channels. Primarily, JD Supra has a Facebook application that helps bring documents onto your Facebook, as well as a Twitter presence.
The service has a great deal of advanced search features as well: you can search based on state, court, document type, subject, and jurisdictions. For contributing legal experts, the profiles are simple but effective. Users can subscribe to your document uploads, too.
This seems to be a service targeted more at lawyers than it is the general consumer. Lawyers will find the most utility searching for articles and creating profiles. For lawyers without the time or knowledge to create a decent online presence, JD Supra may be a way to go. We wish there were more social features, like the ability for lawyers to blog.
Yet opening up access to documents in the legal realm is a worthwhile goal. JD Supra does a good job at organizing documents and giving lawyers incentives to provide them. It may be worth signing up for a free account if you're interested in law, although we'd like to see more features before putting $35 to $58 a month down for a premium account.
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